John Andrew Dunn was born on Little Rocky Creek in Chester County South Carolina. John had a twin sister Sarah. The family settled on Big Creek near Sabula, Missouri when they were about five years old. Their father passed away when they we...re around age 7 but they helped to continue running the farm. John married 16 year old Helen Chitwood in 1850 and soon after settled on Carver Creek where they homesteaded about 300 acres that had recently been the home of Indians that had been driven North. John and Helen had a large family with 14 Children (4 girls and eight boys). The land was covered with virgin timber and they used it to build a one room, clay floored log cabin using nothing but a chopping axe and mall made from wood. He built another log cabin for his workshop where he built, from wood, a wagon, a plow and a yolk for his two oxen. He used the oxen and wagon to haul wood to the sawmill and used the lumber to build his house. He had the 16 x 16 ft square with upstairs framed when the civil war broke out. They had five children at the time. John didn't join the North or South but tried to continue farming. Unfortunnately, the Jay Hawkers gave him a lot of trouble so he bought a race horse so he could get away from them. He would stay out in the woods a lot and when it was safe, Helen would hang out a flag and he would come in to eat. Once they threatened to hang John but after a while only took his prized race horse. About 9 months before the war ended, they took John to prison in Alton, Illinois. The prison was dug underground and walled up with rock. It was dark and cold and John had just a blanket to roll up in on the hard cold floor. He was miserable with the itch and lice and ate nothing but hard cornbread and water. At night, the men would dig on a tunnel to escape but if they were caught, they were shot. When the war ended, they let the prisoners out. It was cold and the snow was deep. At this point, John had TB and was very weak. The Mississippi was frozen over and John walked the mile across and after reaching the Missouri banks, rolled up in his blanket and waited for morning. It was 100 miles to home and John walked 25 miles a day for four days. It was late at night when he finally reached his brother Eliab's house in Chloride he knocked on the door and when they answered, he collapsed. After resting a couple of days, he was finally reunited with Helen and the children on a little bluff north of their home. They worked to finish their home and John spent his days hunting and farming. He built a smokehouse where he kept his barrels of salt, potatoes, pumpkins and sauerkraut. He would hang his deer meat and beef on poles and smoke it with hickory wood. They grew all there own food and farmed sugar cane, wheat and corn. They had lots of chickens but no chicken house so they roosted in the trees and laid their eggs anywhere. Helen got 8 cennts per dozen and traded for groceries and other stuff. They raised sheep and geese and used the goose feathers to make pillows and ticks to sleep on. They washed clothes in the creek and made their own soap with lye and animal fat. They would lay the clothes on the bank and beat them with a paddle then put them in an iron kettle to boil and finally rinse them in the creek. They had a loom and wove their cloth from the wool. The boys never got a pair of pants until they were 16 and 17. They wove a heavy cotton cloth and made shirts that reached their knees. They worked in the fields this way. On Aug 6th, 1903, Helen passed away near the age of 70 and is buried in Emily's Chapel also. About two years later, John fell from the barn loft and broke his shoulder. He was bedfast and only lived about one more year. He passed away on Nov. 4th, 1906 at age 75.

Iron County Register